For a bigger chest, the chest press machine vs bench press question has a short answer: both work about equally well when you push hard on either one.
If you want a bigger barbell bench number, you need to bench. And the number on the machine stack does not equal your bench number.
The best upper ab workout is built on moves that curl your ribs down toward your hips.
Our top three are the stability ball crunch, the crunch done right, and the kneeling cable crunch. Two need nothing but a floor or a ball; the third needs a cable or a band.
A set of 100 squats can leave your legs shaking for a full minute afterward. The calorie bill for all that effort is about a quarter of a banana, whatever your watch shows.
So how many calories do squats burn?
Men peak at 25 to 29 with about 49.7 kg (109.6 lb) in their stronger hand, and women at 40 to 44 with about 29.9 kg (65.9 lb).
Those two numbers are the headline of average grip strength by age, and the curve is flatter than you might expect.
The hip thrust is the better main lift for most people. Your hips travel about twice as far and it loads far heavier.
The glute bridge does the same job from the floor with no equipment and can work your glutes just as hard.
Enter your weight, pick an exercise and type in your reps or minutes.
This bodyweight exercise calorie calculator covers push-ups, sit-ups, squats, lunges, burpees, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, pull-ups and planks, and shows the source behind every number.
Three reps, then the bar wins. Later you read that the average is 13.
So how many pull ups should you be able to do? Most adults who never train them manage somewhere between zero and three strict reps.
Fifty push-ups that leave your chest burning cost about as much as three almonds. Your watch will tell you otherwise.
So how many calories do push ups burn? Roughly a third to three quarters of a calorie per rep, or 4 to 12 calories per minute of actual work, depending on your body weight and how hard you push.
Most lifters build muscle fastest on 10 to 20 hard sets per muscle per week, and you have probably seen that range already.
The harder part of how many sets per muscle group per week is which number goes next to which muscle.
A good kettlebell ab workout is not a crunch list. Your middle fights to stop your body bending, twisting or tipping over while one lump of iron tries to make it happen. Every move here needs one bell and a patch of floor.
Below you get 9 kettlebell ab exercises, each with sets, reps and a real starting weight in kilos and pounds, an easier version if you are new, and a 20-minute routine you can run at home with one bell.